I just got through being on the BBC World Service program World Have Your Say which had a range of American bloggers to discuss the growing call by retired generals for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
And I learned something new: Bill Clinton is at the root of it.
One blogger who criticizes the generals who are daring to call for Rumsfeld to resign said that generals are political appointees — and all of these generals were appointed by Bill Clinton and had a World War II (Clinton by implication) mindset.
So you learn something new every day. CLINTON is to blame.
This blogger also argued that if these generals were so courageous why didn’t they resign when they were on the job instead of retiring on their fat pensions?
So there you have it:
-If a former military bigwig dares demand new leadership and says the war is being run poorly it’s because the evil spirit of Bill Clinton lurks within his political soul.
–The word “cowards” wasn’t used but it was suggested that these retired generals were certainly…ahem…less than courageous for speaking out now.
How does this play with an independent voter? GOPers who care about the impact on someone who doesn’t belong to a party might take note:
I listen to this and more than ever I am truly repelled by the utter defend-at-any-cost mentality of some administration supporters. The idea that people may actually have a conscience or greatly differ on policy matters (teeny weenie ones such as the conduct of the war in Iraq, for instance) often seems alien to them. Either that, or they immediately feel they must attack and discredit those who disagree. Those who criticize or differ are seen as weak, on the payroll of the Democrats or possessed by an evil spirit (B-i-l-l C-l-i-n-t-o-n).
PS to GOPers: The idea that every problem that happens or every botched government response is because Bill Clinton is to blame or somehow linked to it has gotten very OLD.
Any day I’m expecting to hear that Hurricane Katrina happened because Clinton seeded the clouds.
Oops! I gave them the idea (so you read it here first).
UPDATE: On the BBC program I quoted THIS POST by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius (whom some will instantly label a RINO because of it) calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation. This is the relevant part that I quoted:
Rumsfeld has lost the support of the uniformed military officers who work for him. Make no mistake: The retired generals who are speaking out against Rumsfeld in interviews and op-ed pieces express the views of hundreds of other officers on active duty. When I recently asked an Army officer with extensive Iraq combat experience how many of his colleagues wanted Rumsfeld out, he guessed 75 percent. Based on my own conversations with senior officers over the past three years, I suspect that figure may be low.
I can just guess the response now: “Well, then, Joe, they all were appointed by Bill Clinton or have the Bill Clinton mindset!”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.